I'm on a very active discussion list called "Positive Futures". It is associated with "YES" magazine and talks about Simple Living and ecological lifestyles. Anyway, someone posted a list of what they thought were the minimum essentials around the house. The list included many items such as computers, phone, and some basic items we all use. This post has bothered me for weeks and i've finally put my finger on the problem. This person lists "things" and we really don't need "things". We need comfort, air, water, affection, food, nature, energy, etc. Our preoccupation with "things" is the problem. Mushroom magazine arrived with some interesting facts. These mushroom folks think the whole world is missing out on the real "movers and shakers" in the world (fungi). Here are some facts from the magazine: From 80-90 percent of earth's plant species can form mycorrhizas. mycorrhizas have been around for 450 million years and plants could not have colonized the land without them. So far we may have described about 6-7 percent of the mycota in the world. Why is all this important... it is suspected that humans are driving many fungi into extinction which could be important to our future. New research is showing strong links between disease control, agriculture, etc. Unfortunately, we know very little about fungi and can't make a strong argument for why they are essential. Here is a list of how mushroom people rate the edible mushrooms: 1. Black chantrelle 2. morel 3. King bolete 4. Perigord truffle 5. Butter bolete 6. Man on Horseback 7. Matsutake 8. Candy cap 9. Springtime Amanita 10. Shaggy Mane jeff
